‘High Potential’ Episode 8 Recap: “Obsessed”

By
Rebecca Murray
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High Potential Episode 8 Recap
JD Pardo and Kaitlin Olson in ‘High Potential’ episode 8 (Disney)

ABC’s High Potential episode eight’s case of the week involves a woman found unconscious on the beach. It turns out her attack is tied to a two-year-old cold case of a murdered tennis pro.

Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) and Tom (JD Pardo) go on a breakfast date because Morgan’s life is too insane for a normal dinner date. Her kids are with her ex this weekend, but she’s on call with LAPD. Tom announces he’ll keep Saturday night open, just in case she’s free. Morgan isn’t hopeful; she always gets called in. Tom remains optimistic and even offers to cook.

And speaking of the LAPD, Morgan ends the breakfast when she’s called to meet the detectives on the beach. An unidentified and presumed deceased woman has blunt force trauma to her head. Detective Oz Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) says local businesses haven’t found any footage of her on their security cams. Detective Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) notes the victim’s not wearing clothes to go for a swim.

They consider this a murder, but Morgan’s not so sure. She asks for Detective Adam Karadec’s watch and holds it up to the woman’s nose. It fogs up, which means she’s alive! (Why didn’t anyone else check this?!)

Back at the station, Morgan explains to Oz (and the audience) that it’s the Lazarus effect – the spontaneous return of circulation after failed resuscitation. Daphne reports that the victim has a skull fracture, and Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) wants someone there when she wakes up. Oz chimes in with news that there are trace amounts of metal in her wound.

Adam (Daniel Sunjata) figures out the victim is Heather Wallace, a 27-year-old graduate student who was reported missing by her boyfriend, Morris, last night. Morris, who is much older than 27, is brought in and confirms that the woman is Heather. Morris recently sold a leisurewear company he founded. And last night he was at home picking out tiles for his pool.

Selena and Morgan observe the interview, and both admit they don’t like this guy. He hasn’t even asked to see Heather.

Oz informs Selena and Morgan that Heather isn’t Heather or a grad student. Her name is actually Penny Hall. Selena orders Morgan and Adam to go to Penny’s place and figure out who she is. They arrive at her apartment and the landlord lets them in, describing Penny as his favorite tenant. He also reveals that her boyfriend, Lucas Phillips (Christopher Phi), was murdered and that Penny stayed home for weeks after he was killed.

Adam believes Penny was scared and used a fake name after Lucas was murdered. Morgan looks around and points out all the expensive shoes and clothing. There are lots of credit card bills on her counter, meaning she was paying for the items – not Morris. This isn’t a sugar daddy gone wrong situation.

Morgan is confused because any one of Penny’s dresses would pay her mortgage for a month. Plus, she’s paying $2500 for a billboard on Pacific Coast Highway. Adam wonders why a woman would hide her identity and date a rich guy while going into serious debt to impress him. Morgan stumbles upon the answer in the back of Penny’s closet. Penny’s got her own murder board on the wall, and Morris is listed as one of the possible suspects. She’s searching for her boyfriend’s murderer!

High Potential Episode 8 Recap
Deniz Akdeniz, Daniel Sunjata, Kaitlin olson, and Judy Reyes in ‘High Potential episode 8 (Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)

Back at the station, the team begins digging into Lucas Phillips’ death. He was found dead two years ago, and the billboard Penny’s paying for asks for any information about his murder. The detective who worked on the case was upset that he didn’t solve it before he retired. And it turns out Lucas died from blunt force trauma to the head and was found on the beach, just like Penny.

It was thought Lucas’ murder was a robbery, but Adam disagrees. Now it appears both Lucas and Penny were attacked by the same person. Morgan points out rice in Lucas’ hair, and Adam adds that he had antifreeze in his nose. Lucas worked as a tennis coach at the Marina Azul Beach Club and while the cops interviewed and cleared its members, Penny’s murder board shows she considers many of them as suspects.

The conclusion: Penny adopted a new identity, bought classy clothes, and dated Morris (a club member) to get access to the club. That way, she could do her own investigation. So, either Morris killed her when he found out, or Lucas’ killer tried to silence her because she was getting too close.

Edward Wilson, grandson of the beach club’s founder, shows Adam and Morgan around. Edward’s brother,r Blaine, joins them, and the brothers recognize Penny as coming to the club with Morris. They also recognize a photo of Lucas and confirm he was a popular tennis instructor at the club. They’re both obnoxious, and neither is the least bit helpful.

Before they leave, Morgan asks the guy who greeted them in the lobby about his black eye. He claims he got it from a man selling illegal goods on the beach. The man hit him when he escorted him off the property.

That man’s name is Cameron Swift (Paul James Jordan) and he has priors for assault. He’s always hanging around the club, and Morgan thinks he may have seen something on the night of Lucas and/or Penny’s attacks. They bring him down to the station for questioning, and Cameron admits he saw Penny. She’s been accusing him of killing Lucas. He told her to knock it off.

Cameron says he’s been trying to get into the club to see Blaine because Blaine owes him money and is ghosting him. While conducting the interview, Adam gets word that Penny just woke up.

Morris is already at her bedside when Adam and Morgan arrive to ask questions. Penny says she was supposed to meet up with someone who called with information on Lucas’ murder. The person claimed to have seen Lucas’ killer, but when she got there, she was hit from behind. She never saw her assailant’s face.

Penny regrets carrying on her investigation for so long. She touches her diamond necklace as she says she misses Lucas. He gave it to her the week before he was murdered. Adam informs her they’re reopening Lucas’ case and asks if anything unusual stands out from the days leading up to his death. Penny says there wasn’t anything unusual and confirms Lucas loved his job at the beach club.

Morgan asks about Blaine, and Penny reveals Blaine and Lucas had run-ins and that Blaine threatened to fire him. Penny’s been investigating him, but it’s been hard because Edward protects him.

Adam and Morgan return to the club to question Edward about Blaine. Edward claims Blaine isn’t perfect, but he wouldn’t hurt anyone. He admits he helped his brother through rehab and his money problems, but he wouldn’t cover up for him if Blaine killed someone.

Blaine’s nowhere to be found, but Morgan’s eagle eyes spot a woman who might be just as helpful. Morgan gets the woman, Shelby, to admit that the one-of-a-kind diamond necklace she’s wearing (a gift from her wealthy husband) is a fake. Shelby gave the real one to Lucas to keep him quiet after he found out she was sleeping with Blaine and didn’t want her husband to find out. That gives Blaine a reason to have wanted Lucas dead.

Morgan reexamines their murder board and realizes they have the wrong time of death. Lucas’ shorts are wet, but his hair isn’t, which means the tide never came up to the spot on the beach where his body was found in the morning. He was likely killed elsewhere and dumped.

Adam puts Daphne to work gathering all the CCTV footage from the day of Lucas’ murder for review. They need to find someone with a bag or suitcase large enough to fit a body. Oz is going back over the forensics, and Morgan admits she’s frustrated she can’t figure out what clues she’s missing.

High Potential Episode 8 Recap
Daniel Sunjata and Kaitlin Olson in ‘High Potential’ episode 8 (Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)

Morgan can’t stop thinking about the case and swings by Adam’s place (uninvited) at night. She suspected he’d be home working on the case, and he is. They order Chinese and set to work piecing together the clues.

They work all night and over a cup of morning coffee, Adam assures her they’ll figure it out. They sort of discuss Tom and Adam’s ex, and Morgan finally leaves. However, when she steps outside Adam’s porchlight is flashing. Suddenly, she realizes who killed Lucas!

As they drive to arrest the murderer, Morgan explains that rice is used to replicate snow in snow globes. Antifreeze is put in snow globes to keep the liquid from freezing. Lucas had rice in his hair and antifreeze in his system, so a snow globe was the murder weapon. Earlier, Morgan and Adam saw Edward’s shelves with souvenirs from the countries he visited with Blaine. Edward talked about their fancy trip to Italy, France, Spain, and Greece, and there were souvenirs on the shelf from everywhere but Greece.

Morgan thinks Lucas was done with Blaine’s bad behavior (the drugs, affairs, and fraud). Lucas probably gave Edward an ultimatum – fire Blaine or else he’ll spill his secrets – and Edward reacted by killing him to protect his brother.

Edward also tried to kill Penny because she was obsessed with finding Lucas’ killer, and he couldn’t let that happen. But if they can’t get Edward to confess, this is all circumstantial.

Dozens of cops arrive at the club and Edward makes a run for it. Morgan quickly looks around Edward’s office and is sure he’s heading to a nearby cliff above the beach. Adam and Morgan run down the beach and are in time to spot Edward prepared to jump off the cliff.

Morgan pleads with him to consider what will happen to Blaine if he jumps. Blaine races up and says she’s right, begging his brother not to do this. Edward listens and is taken into custody.

Morgan hitches a ride with Adam to tell Penny they’ve found Lucas’ killer. Penny cries, relieved to finally get an answer to what happened to her boyfriend.

Since the case is solved, Morgan’s got time during her weekend for dinner with Tom. They relax, drink wine, eat, and get to know each other. Tom confesses he’s had a lot going on, too, and he’s made some necessary changes in his life. He also confesses he likes being around Morgan.

Morgan’s forced to end the night early when Selena calls and needs her to come to her office. Selena’s been digging into Roman’s life and tracking where he was in the days before he disappeared. She discovered he’d been talking to a man named Gio Conforth. Morgan’s never heard that name before. Selena’s learned Gio is a concierge who procures items for people on both sides of the law. It raises a lot of questions if Roman was dealing with him.

Gio’s been extremely difficult to locate, but Selena finally found him and is working on bringing him in for questioning. Morgan wonders when Selena did all this, and Selena admits she did it “in the shadows when no one was looking.”




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